Should Rosalina's name be universally applied?

[winstein]

Many Mario characters have a name that is shared across borders, so for example, no matter if it's in Japanese, French, German, or Korean, Mario is still Mario. The same can be applied for certain characters like Yoshi, Waluigi, and Donkey Kong. This is convenient because it basically meant that localisation would not be much of an issue on those fronts. To a lesser extent, we have characters whose names are semi-universal, in which there are two names that are used within certain territories. An example is Toad, who is notably called Kinopio in Japanese, Korean, and Chinese, yet in others he's called Toad. This might be a bit odd if Toad said "Toad won!" in Mario Party 8 in Japanese instead of "Kinopio won!" (though I would love to hear him say that, to be frank), since he's called Kinopio there.

The Mario enemies are more or less differently-treated. Because of how much their names are tied into their designs, their names are translated to reflect their quirks. As an example, Boo was named for being a ghost, yet its Japanese name Teresa ties back to a developer's wife who displays a similar behaviour in being scary behind their backs. Of the major characters thus far, Rosalina is an oddity. Unlike say, Daisy, Rosalina has different names in different languages. And it's not like Toadette or Bowser where it's two names across every language: she has at least three different names, which is in a similar ballpark as the Mario enemies. The names include: Rosalina, Rosetta, Harmonie, Estela, and Rosalinda.

Now, there is a precedent in which a Mario character is reworked to become a universal name, and you will know her by the name of Peach. Indeed, before Super Mario 64 set the standard, Princess Toadstool was what she was called in some places, before it was decided that Peach is the name for everywhere. Using Sonic as an example, when Eggman was going to be the name for Sonic's archnemesis, there were a lot of pushback, meaning that a name change won't necessarily go smoothly, so what Nintendo did with Peach is somewhat of a miracle in that sense. I can fully understand how as an English forum, the differences won't be felt, that is, unless the name adopted will be the non-English name.

With that said, what do you think? Given Rosalina's status as a major character (even if she is now demoted in the Mario Awards last year), would you be in favour of Rosalina being called Rosetta everywhere, leaving it semi-universal similar to Toad/Toadette/Bowser, or to retain the unique names set out in other languages?

Thank you for reading.

 

[zel]

on one hand i LOVE how much the etymology of the rosetta name means. meanwhile rosalina doesnt really mean anything
but the VIBES of the names are different. the name rosalina gives off more fancy vibes, which fits her more than the vibes rosetta gives off, if that makes sense

oh wait i wrote this befroe i noticed this post was talkinga bout names in all the other languages too whoops. i guess they translated it everywhere bc they had no idea rosalina would become such a major character later on so theres now a lot of inconsistency?
anyway my stance is just keep it as is in every language for convenience. the existing english name changes happened fairly early into the series history, and this isnt that now. weve known rosalina as rosalina for all the almost 15 years shes existed and itd be weird if she suddenly wasnt named rosalina. for comparison, peach has existed for around 11 years before super mario 64 renamed her for good, and the fact that it was before the internet took off and p early into the series history is also a factor

 

[winstein]

on one hand i LOVE how much the etymology of the rosetta name means. meanwhile rosalina doesnt really mean anything
but the VIBES of the names are different. the name rosalina gives off more fancy vibes, which fits her more than the vibes rosetta gives off, if that makes sense

This is practically similar to why Terra of Final Fantasy 6 was renamed. Her original Japanese name is Tina, which is a more common name in the west but in Japan it has a mystical vibe to it. That's why it was renamed to the less-common and as a result mystical name Terra to convey the meaning better. Of course, Final Fantasy and Mario are not comparable in their importance and character retention (for one, Final Fantasy casts are restricted to that particular number), but it's another example of what you meant.

Thank you for reading.

 

[Emo Furcorn]

I'm upset you didn't mention the Shy Guy's French name.

 

[PaperSplash]

If I could go back in time and be the one calling the shots at Nintendo, then I would have kept Rosetta worldwide. I'm not a fan of name changes between languages, except if the original name was meant to be an obvious pun or reference in the original language and the intent would be completely lost in translation otherwise. So per that exception I'm okay with Koopa being changed to Bowser, Kinopio being changed to Toad and most enemy/boss names also being changed (for many of them I wish the localizers stuck closer to the spirit of the original puns and references instead of making up completely different ones, but it is what it is).

The reference in Rosetta isn't language- or culture-specific (in other words, it would have translated over fine) and I don't think it was meant to be that obvious anyway. And again, the localized names don't even capture the spirit of the original name that well besides Rosalina and Rosalinda sounding somewhat similar to Rosetta (see modern Pokémon for how I think name changes should be handled if they must be done).

I suspect the actual reason why Rosetta was changed was because of the Rosetta Stone software, which was quite popular around the time of Galaxy's release. Maybe Nintendo was worried about trademark and/or search engine optimization issues. I still wish Rosetta could have been kept regardless though.

oh wait i wrote this befroe i noticed this post was talkinga bout names in all the other languages too whoops. i guess they translated it everywhere bc they had no idea rosalina would become such a major character later on so theres now a lot of inconsistency?

I think it's actually because Galaxy was translated directly from Japanese individually to most other languages for their localizations, while most previous Mario games had their non-English European (and sometimes Chinese) localizations base their work at least partially on the English one. Also, the debut games of a lot of older Mario characters weren't properly localized at all to languages besides English (the instruction booklet would have translations if you were lucky), so once those characters ended up appearing in games with full localizations, they often opted to keep their English names as it was what anyone who played their debut games would be used to.

anyway my stance is just keep it as is in every language for convenience. the existing english name changes happened fairly early into the series history, and this isnt that now. weve known rosalina as rosalina for all the almost 15 years shes existed and itd be weird if she suddenly wasnt named rosalina. for comparison, peach has existed for around 11 years before super mario 64 renamed her for good, and the fact that it was before the internet took off and p early into the series history is also a factor

I agree. At this point, despite my personal issues with it being changed in the first place, Rosalina's existing names in each language should just be left as is for convenience and consistency's sake. And you make a good point about Toadstool going back to Peach happening early on and before the internet was a big thing. Even then, Nintendo got really lucky not to have any significant pushback to the reversion unlike things like Robotnik to Eggman, like the OP pointed out.